


I'll See You There

by orphan_account



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy-era, F/M, Gen, Mostly friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 21:10:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4580259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: "i desperately need my books but my locker is blocked and you’re the only one in the hall” + fitzsimmons". </p><p>Jemma Simmons has a huge exam coming up, but her locker is jammed and it's nearly midnight in the Biology building. Enter her prickly new lab partner Leo Fitz, breaking in to someone's locker down the hall. </p><p>FitzSimmons at the Academy, before he found that brilliant thing to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll See You There

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amazingjemma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazingjemma/gifts).



After spending nearly six hours working on identifying samples for her lab practical, Jemma knew it was time to get started on studying for her exams in the coming days. Sighing, she removed the hair tie from her curls, shaking it out and making her way into the hallway toward her locker. She’d finally convinced Dr. Weaver that she needed a space to store things in the Biology building after a doctor had expressed concern that she was going to develop scoliosis with the amount of books and supplies she lugged around nearly every day. To say that Jemma Simmons had jumped into life at the SciTech academy with enthusiasm would be an understatement. 

She reached her locker, hardly noticing that the hallway was completely empty. It was nearly midnight on a Tuesday, after all, and most other students had long retired to their dorms. She deftly entered the code into her locker, and it beeped for her to open it. She grabbed the handle and pulled—and it remained shut. 

Her eyes widened and she dropped the few books she had in her hands onto the floor, desperately tugging on her locker in a wild frenzy. 

“No, no, no,” she moaned, banging her hand on it and wincing, drawing it back to her. “Ow.” 

She heard a small snort from further down the row of lockers and spun around to see Leo Fitz deftly opening a locker. 

“Why is your locker in the Biology building?” she asked him accusingly. 

“It’s no’,” he responded shortly. 

“Are you stealing?!” she shrieked. 

He rolled his eyes at her. “Always dramatic Simmons. My roommate asked me to get his books for ‘im.” 

He turned to leave, and before she could stop herself, she’d called out to him, halting his steps. 

“What d’you want, Simmons?” 

“Well, you see, my locker seems to be—jammed, and I couldn’t help but notice that you’re quite…adequate at these types of mechanical issues.” 

“Adequate?” Fitz yelped. “Jus’ because you beat me in tha’ chemistry exam doesn’t mean I’m not bloody brilliant.” 

“Yes, yes, fine,” she sighed in exasperation. “You’re absolutely brilliant. Would you please help me? I really need my books to study for my upcoming biology exam.”  
He grumbled but still walked to her side, dropping his bag at their feet and looking at the locker. Jemma rewarded him with a huge smile, and he felt something strange in his gut. In the two months he’d been at the Academy, she’d never smiled at him. 

“I know you’re not particularly fond of me,” Jemma said carefully as he worked on the locker in front of her, shooing her out of the way impatiently. “But I was going to head over to that 24 hour café across the street to study, if you’d like to join me. My roommate has been rather anxious about the mechanical engineering exam tomorrow.” 

Fitz stared at her as if she’d grown two heads, and she desperately wished she could shove the words back into her mouth. They’d been chemistry lab partners for two weeks now, but she was no nearer to befriending him then she had been the first time he’d glared at her across the lecture hall. 

He closed his mouth and she saw a muscle in his jaw twitch. “Sure. Why not.” 

Then he set about prying open her locker with some sort of little device he’d pulled out of the pocket of his bag, and Jemma watched his hands work with fascination. He stepped back and stared at the locker again, head tilted to one side. Something about it was really quite adorable, and Jemma physically stumbled with the realization. 

No. She was not going to go down this road with her nemesis. 

He grinned and she thought it was mostly to himself. He knocked his fist on the top left corner and then delivered an open-palm smack to the center of it. 

The locker swung open easily, and a flood of books fell to the floor on top of his bag. 

“Good lord, Simmons,” he laughed, bending down to help her pick them up. She glanced up at him, her cheeks red from embarrassment at the state of her locker. Had his eyes always been that blue? Perhaps the lab goggles impeded the color. “Have you stolen the library?” 

“Of course not,” she replied primly, struggling to keep the color off of her face. “I just pursue a lot of extracurricular research.” 

“Relax, Queen Elizabeth,” he scoffed. “I’m just teasing. You should see the sorry state of my bookshelf in my room. Not that I’m—inviting you to my room. It’s not like—you know what I mean.”

“I do,” Jemma said with a breathless little laugh. She re-organized her books in her locker, pulling the ones she needed and stuffing them in her bag. 

“I’ll meet you at the café?” Fitz asked nervously, scratching at the back of his neck. “I need to run these books back to the library for my roommate.” 

“See you there!” Jemma chirped, dashing off toward the exit closest to the café. Fitz set off in the opposite direction, thoughts racing rapidly. He needed to come up with something smart to say to her, and fast. So far all he’d done was make fun of her. If he really wanted to be Jemma Simmons’ friend, he needed to do better than that. 

He quickly dropped his roommate’s books off, ignoring the puzzled look on his face when he said he had plans with a friend. Fitz ignored the pang in his chest at the realization that his roommate was probably wondering when on earth Fitz had made a friend. 

He entered the café to find it quiet, Simmons the only customer in the whole shop; she looked stressed, hands fisted in her brown hair. A large tea-pot sat on the table in front of her with two mugs. She looked up at him with a small smile when he entered and beckoned for him to sit in the chair across from her. 

“I got us a pot of English Breakfast,” she told him. “Cream and sugar’s on the table as well. If you don’t like—“ 

“No, no, I like it,” he cut her off. “What are you looking at? Y’looked a bit frustrated when I walked in.” 

“It’s just these mutations,” Jemma admitted reluctantly. “They’re not making that much sense to me.” 

“Ah,” he said sympathetically, pouring some tea into a mug. “I had the same problem. But here’s the thing, if you look at it the same way you’d look at, say, viral response to antibiotics, it’s essentially the same thing.” 

“It’s more of a ev—“ 

“—olution, exactly. Can’t think of it too much as an accidental mutation. These cells know—“ 

“—precisely what they’re doing. Thank you, Fitz, that really did help,” Jemma beamed. 

Fitz didn’t return to his dorm until nearly four in the morning, and he’d certainly felt it when he woke up for his 8 a.m. exam the next day. He hardly had time to brush his teeth, let alone grab a pastry and a cup of tea before class. He got into the elevator in a sour mood, feel ill prepared to tackle an exam with no food or caffeine. 

“Fitz!” Jemma said cheerily. She looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and Fitz so badly wanted to hate her for that, but she was holding a tray with two to-go cups on it and a brown bag in her hand. He noticed his name written neatly in red sharpie on the side of the one of the cups. 

“English Breakfast with an absurd amount of sugar and a splash of cream,” she said sweetly, nodding at the cup for him to take it. She gave him the tray for a moment and rustled around in the brown paper bag, emerging with a warm croissant. “And a croissant from that little cart near the east entrance. I just wanted to thank you for all your help last night.” 

“Anytime, Simmons,” he said. “Thanks, this is a life-saver.” 

She gave him a huge smile in return. “Good luck on your exam! I’ll see you in chem?” 

“Yeah,” he agreed, walking backward out the door. “See you then!” 

He made sure to meet her in the lobby the day of her biology exam, with two cups of a tea and a croissant. 

Nearly ten years later, when they moved onto Coulson’s Bus, they couldn’t quite get croissants at the drop of a hat, but whenever one of them had a big problem or project to work on that day, the other could be found standing eagerly outside the other’s bunk, two cups of tea in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me at my Marvel tumblr. I'm superirishbreakfasttea over there as well, and send me some prompts!


End file.
